Tuscaloosa police charge man with human trafficking

According to court documents filed Monday, an officer made contact with four women who were working as prostitutes at a hotel on McFarland Boulevard East on Friday night. The women said Yusef Muhammad, 63, brought them to Tuscaloosa to work several times, according to the court file.

The women told officers that Muhammad took $20 cash from the women after each customer, according to police.

One of the women told a investigator that Muhammad had choked her until she paid him $40. A witness backed up that account to police.

Muhammad was charged with first-degree human trafficking, because he had transported the woman "for the purpose of sexual servitude," the investigator wrote in the report.

The charges are filed listing Muhammad as the suspect's name, but indicate he is also known as Joseph Taylor Jr. He is unemployed.

The arrest was part of a prostitution detail conducted by TPD'S Code Enforcement Division with the assistance of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, TPD spokeswoman Lt. Teena Richardson said. The operation targeted suspects soliciting prostitution through advertisements promoting "sex for sale," she said.

Agents also arrested Bradford Oneal Simmons, 30, of Tuscaloosa on a misdemeanor second-degree promoting prostitution charge. According to court records, police searched the phone of a woman and found that he offered her protection in exchange for a percent of her earnings. He also demanded $1,200 from her recent transactions, according to the file.